Focus: Hope said today that it will halt the majority of its job training programs next week in response to cuts in federal funding for workforce development and the ongoing budget gridlock in Washington, D.C.

The Detroit-based nonprofit will lay off 70 employees in its training programs and put 225 students in its machinist, information technology and Fast Track math and reading programs on indefinite vacation while it awaits word on funding for the current fiscal year from the federal government.

Focus: Hope said it also may have to suspend its engineering program in December. The move would affect 54 students.

The nonprofit has yet to receive funding for the current year for those programs under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. It had budgeted for a 10 percent to 20 percent decrease in this year's WIA funding.

Last year Focus: Hope received $5.86 million through the program.

Two months into the new fiscal year, Focus: Hope said in a release that it is uncertain when and whether any of the anticipated revenue will be received.

It is ironic that the federal government is debating cuts in workforce development "at a time when the need for skilled job training is high and the need for machinists and other skilled workers in our region is growing," Focus: HOPE CEO William Jones Jr. said in the release.

Focus: Hope students typically obtain good-paying jobs within 60 days of completing the programs, Jones said, adding that more than 11,000 people have come through the programs since they began in 1981 and have contributed over $1 billion in earnings to the local economy.

In the past month alone, more than 800 people contacted the nonprofit for job training and jobs, he said.

Focus: Hope said it is looking for alternative sources of public, private and foundation support.